HYNES SON SACKED Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes's willingness to believe his son Kevin Hynes innocent story about crashing and abandoning his government car in Westchester County may have given way to dubiousness more fitting of a prosecutor. After a probe revealed the younger Hynes had been secretly driven from the crash site by a colleague in the Westchester County D.A.'s office, Hynes's dad replaced his initial public statement with a "no comment." The elder Hynes said it wouldn't be appropriate to discuss the matter since it's under investigation by the Putnam County D.A. Of course, that was also the case when Hynes initially said that he believed his son had done nothing wrong.

Kevin Hynes, 40, was later asked to resign from his $128,752-a-year job by his boss, Westchester D.A. Jeanine Pirro, who didn't buy Hynes's explanation that he left the scene of the one-car, Friday night accident because he felt unsafe in quiet, rich North Castle. Pirro learned that alcohol was involved and that a co-worker hustled Hynes away before the police arrived at 6 a.m. (The colleague was forced to retire.) An empty Heineken bottle was found in the vehicle. But there may be still more to this scandal. Authorities reported that the driver-side and passenger-side air bags in the 1997 Mercury Marquis had deployed in the crash. The passenger-side bag is designed to pop out only if someone weighing at least 80 pounds is sitting in the front seat.

Which begs the question: Who else was in the car with Kevin Hynes? The passenger might be able to provide more information about the role alcohol played in the crash. Since Hynes didn't turn himself in for six days, police couldn't determine his blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

DIANE THE DELINQUENT The Village Voice just ran a story exposing State Senator Olga Mendez's failure to file campaign financial disclosures since September 2002. But there was no mention of the Legislature's top delinquent, Assemblywoman Diane Gordon. She hasn't filed a statement since January 2001, according to the state Board of Elections.

"There's no excuse for not doing it, as far as we know," said board spokesman Lee Daghlian. The board has obtained 11 default judgments totaling several thousand dollars against Gordon's campaign committee dating back to 2000. In theory, the Albany County district attorney could prosecute Gordon on misdemeanor charges, the spokesman added. But he never does. Daghlian said State Senator Marty Dilan is also a delinquent filer with 10 open judgments, including some for the maximum of $522, over the last four years.

TOUGH LESSON FOR OWENS Rep. Major Owens's efforts to stop the deportation of about 200 Caribbean teachers brought him a whirlwind of publicity-good and bad-in the Caribbean community. First, an Owens staffer misinterpreted a message from the U.S. State Department and falsely reported that the deportations had been averted. Carib News then ran a blistering story and editorial on August 4 accusing Owens of staging a "big hoax" to help his reelection bid.

Then the teachers really were saved, allowing Owens to legitimately take credit for helping to resolve the situation, which had come about because the Bloomberg administration dropped the ball in the first place, according to the Owens camp. Meanwhile, former City Council candidate Sam Taitt dispatched an e-mail praising Owens and Assemblyman Nick Perry for saving the day. It added that Owens would be a guest on Taitt's next BCAT show. Expect Taitt to seek endorsements from Owens and Perry when Taitt runs against City Councilman Kendall Stewart again next year.

BOUNCED FROM BALLOT Attorney Andre Soleil, who was trying to run as a Democrat against State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, vanished from the Board of Elections' list of candidates on August 13. It seems we'll be deprived of what would have been a colorful race. Not only was Soleil harshly critical of Montgomery, but one of his campaign themes was to allow parents to whup their children.

Parents should only lose custody of their children if they inflict "lacerations, broken bones, major contusions, things of that nature," Soleil told us. "Not swelling." He explained, "A few welts on the behind is not an indication of abuse."

The primary theme of his brief campaign against Montgomery was that she is ineffective. "We didn't create the office of Senate to elect our favorite grandma, have her smile at us, and have us call her senator," said Soleil, who in the last decade has been a Democrat, Republican, unaffiliated voter, Libertarian, and finally a Democrat again.

Soleil was disqualified when the Board of Elections ruled he didn't have enough valid signatures on his petitions. The State Supreme Court refused to even hear his appeal. At last check he was seeking reinstatement in federal court. Republican Barbara Cormier also vanished from the ballot in Montgomery's district. Another casualty was Republican Elizabeth Tretter, who was trying to run against State Senator Marty Connor.

Tony Herbert, who was knocked off the ballot when he tried to run as a Democrat for City Council in 2003, then jumped to the Republican Party and lost to Tish James, was given the Republican line against State Senator Carl Andrews this year. But he was knocked off the ballot again. He still has the Conservative line, but that's less of a pulpit from which to criticize his opponent, a skill at which Herbert excels. But he will need a working telephone to do that. Herbert's home and cellular telephone numbers have been disconnected.

Meanwhile, sources said that across the borough in Bensonhurst, Assemblyman Bill Colton collected thousands of signatures on petitions that failed to mention the office for which he was running. Someone noticed the error near the end of the petitioning period, and Colton printed new petitions and scrambled to make the ballot-which he did. In fact, it was Colton's opponent, Glenn Bell, who got kicked off the Republican line.

Finally, we have Allen Herschaft, a perennial one-man campaign whose slogan this year is "A Force That Can't Be Measured." It would indeed be impossible to measure The Force of Herschaft if he's not on the ballot, a near certainty since he was disqualified from his race against Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz. Herschaft went to federal court trying to get back on the ballot. As usual, he represented himself.

DEMS CODDLNG MARTY GOLDEN? Is it a coincidence that no Democrat is running against Republican State Senator Marty Golden this year? In a district in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one? It's probably been a century since the Dems didn't field a candidate in southern and western Brooklyn.

Any challenger to Golden would be an underdog, but that hasn't stopped plenty of Republicans from running hopeless races against Democrats elsewhere in Brooklyn. Golden's lack of opposition has freed up Republican dollars to be spent on other candidates, including Al Curtis in Seymour Lachman's district. So, of course, some insiders are convinced a deal was struck in which Democratic leaders promised Golden a free ride in exchange for something. A player to be named later, perhaps.

But later turned out to be sooner for Assemblyman Frank Seddio and Democratic district leader Bernie Catcher, who were surprised when Mill Island accountant Charles R. Harary challenged them, with help from election attorney Aaron Maslow, who happened to be a leader of the Brooklyn Republican Party. As we reported in a previous column, Harary has since dropped out of the race, a development in which Catcher assured us he had no role.

Yet some people remain convinced that Catcher pressured Republican County Chairman Hy Singer to ask Maslow to call off the dogs, namely Harary and his running mate, Miriam Steinberg, the sister of Maslow's wife Lori. People can at least imagine Catcher calling Singer and reminding him that the Democrats left Senator Golden alone this year. And perhaps also mentioning that Singer arranged for a court system job for Maslow, giving Singer leverage to ask Maslow for a favor back.

But then, people have wild imaginations, don't they? Whatever calls Catcher and Singer made or didn't make, Harary apparently dropped out of the race for other reasons. And Steinberg stayed in the race. Maslow did not bow to any pressure he might have received, though he did quit his Republican Party leadership post.

SLOAN STOPPED Last week was a busy one for would-be candidate for Congress Sam Sloan, who was disqualified from the Republican and Independent party lines by the Board of Elections, went to Supreme Court to get back on the ballot, had his cases dismissed because of a technicality, and immediately appealed that ruling. Sloan's effort was an example of how impossible it can be for a non-lawyer to run for office and navigate the legal system on his own.

According to Sloan, he waited in court for several hours on August 9 until, at 4:55 p.m., he was handed an order to show cause to be heard at 9:30 the following morning. He then attempted to serve the order before the hearing to all the defendants he'd named. He took the train from downtown Brooklyn to lower Manhattan and served the Board of Elections shortly after 5 p.m. Then he went to Staples to make copies of the order for the other parties. At 5:45 p.m. he arrived via subway at 250 West 57th Street to serve attorney Gary Sinawski, who was not in his office. Sloan left the order on his secretary's desk. Returning to downtown Brooklyn, he left the order at Republican county leader Hy Singer's office and then at the Kings County Board of Elections down the street.

Then he jumped on the Q train and served the office of Republican Party lawyer Ted Alatsas on Avenue U and East 21st Street. He did all of this with his 2-year-old daughter in tow. By the time they got home to East New York it was 11 p.m. Back at the courthouse the next morning for his 9:30 hearing, he found his cases would be the last of the 41 heard that day. When they came up, they were promptly thrown out because, the judge said, he'd failed to file affidavits of service notarized by a notary public. Sloan was baffled. "An affidavit of service is only needed if someone fails to appear and a party requests a default judgment," he wrote. "Here, there was no such issue. All parties were present in the courtroom."

A clerk told Sloan he needed to file affidavits of service by 9:30 that morning and handed him a notice published in the New York Law Journal. Sloan read it and found that it did not say when he had to file the affidavits of service. So he filed them later that day and appealed the dismissals. His appeal was denied, but he appealed that to the state's highest court. In all likelihood he won't be on the ballot this year, which surely would allow his prospective opponent, Rep. Ed Towns, to sleep easily. We are joking, of course-Towns never had reason to campaign against Sloan or any other nominal opponent.

TIDBITS Brooklyn's representatives in Washington are doing right by the environment, with a single exception, according to one organization. The Sierra Club endorsed Senator Chuck Schumer and Reps. Major Owens, Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner, and Nydia Velazquez for reelection-but not Rep. Ed Towns…

Regarding Noach Dear's problems with the Federal Election Commission, about which we wrote last week, Dear's campaign manager e-mailed us, "As you know, the candidate himself has absolutely nothing to do with the finances or filings of the campaign. Under FEC rules, the candidate is totally separated and is not involved in such matters of the campaign." That's the benefit of e-mail. You don't have to worry about keeping a straight face when you offer such responses…

The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats has been discussing how to end the decade-long feud between Democratic district leaders Lori Citron Knipel and Jake Gold, which began when Knipel wasn't repaid personal funds she'd lent the 1992 campaign to reelect herself, Gold, and Assemblyman Jim Brennan. CBID sees itself as weakened by the split and would like to present "a united front" for next year's elections, according to the club's newsletter. Knipel, incidentally, has two opponents in the September 14 primary: Gila Wisemon (a client of attorney Alan Rocoff) and Nia Tyler (on a slate with State Senator Kevin Parker, whom Knipel dislikes)…

State Senate candidate Kelvin Alexander announced he'd open a campaign office August 21, just 24 days before the Democratic primary…

We heard months ago that the late Councilman James Davis allegedly had an illegitimate son, but it wasn't really news until the young man filed a paternity claim in court. We're still not sure it's news, since Davis is gone and his brother Geoffrey Davis's political career hasn't panned out. The case now seems no different from a thousand other paternity suits in Brooklyn, except that the alleged father is dead.

NEVER MISS A COLUMN We're told some readers scoop up this paper as soon as it's distributed, lest they miss an edition of "Brooklyn Politics." Both of you should know there is an easier way: subscribe by mail to one of the paid papers that carry this column (the Bay News, Kings Courier, Flatbush Life, Canarsie Digest, or Bay Ridge Courier).

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